Fourth Month of Pregnancy

Week 16

You feel yourself full of energy and good cheer since the second pregnancy
trimester. Very soon your pregnancy will become noticeable and you will
need wider clothes. An embryo has been formed already and is fed through
the placenta since week 14. His movement now is the preparation of the
life outside his mother’s body.

Your baby:

Eyebrows and eyelashes appear. His body and face are covered with lanugo.
The baby’s skin is so thin that the blood vessels network is seen
through it. Arms and legs joints are formed, hardening of bones has begun.
There are his own unique skin pattern on the fingers. The neck has become
noticeable. The sex can be identified, though it does not always happen
at the ultrasonic scanning. The chest is performing respiratory movements.
Your baby can suck his finger, swallow. There appear to be teeth rudiments.
He moves a lot but you do not feel it yet. His heart is beating twice
as fast as yours. After week 14 the doctor can listen to it with a special
stethoscope. Your baby is growing really fast. Its length is 16 cm, the
weight is 135 gr.

New sensations:

You should feel a bit better now. Your appetite has increased. Urination
is seldom. Sickness disappears, though those who are expecting twins could
still feel it or start feeling it. Constipation continues as well as heart
burn, indigestion, abdominal swelling, and sporadic headaches.

A nosebleed may begin as the veins inside it swell. The gums bleed as
well. Varicose veins emerge on the legs and in the anus. White vaginal
discharges are possible.

The beginning of the second trimester is the period of absent-mindedness,
distraction and forgetfulness. This is caused by hormones of this period.
Do not worry, very soon everything will be all right.

The way you look:

You will have gained 2, 5 kg by this time. The breasts are still the
same size. Your waist disappears. The belly is getting round. Your moles
and freckles may become darker, skin pigmentation may increase: the middle
belly line, the nipples and the skin around them will be darker. Soon
after childbirth all these things will disappear.

What you should do:

Give up smoking. Have the right food and pay attention to your weight.
Begin to take vitamins. This month you need iron. Have milk products containing
live lacto and bifida cultures. Have them as often as possible. It may
help you to avoid vaginal thrush (mycotic vulvovaginitis).

You will be offered ultrasonic scanning. Do not worry. You child is
all right. The possibility of pathologies in his development is really
small. As a rule they become apparent in the course of the first weeks
causing miscarriage. On week 13 the embryo is formed already and everything
will be fine from that moment.